Couture 2010: Alexis Mabille

Alexis Mabille, another bright French spark on the Paris landscape, talks refreshing sense about how a modern woman wants to use made-to-measure pieces. “We have a couture clientele, so we know,” he says. “If you’re ordering custom-made things, you want them to be timeless, and you don’t care so much about it being the trendiest thing you can only wear once.” So, for fall, Mabille’s merging the logic of practical ready-to-wear separates (very special separates, like this trapeze lace shell with his signature bow on each shoulder) with the ethos of haute craftsmanship to create a multiple-choice wardrobe of tops, bottoms and tailoring. The most far-sighted choice in his lineup of “Reality couture,” though, is this A-line skirt, cut to exactly the below-knee length that we’ll be wanting to wear next year.